Surface transport has advantages such that it can deliver goods and services to any location without the need of major infrastructure. However, there is a need for surface transport vehicles to be more efficient in their use of fuel and energy consumption to ensure that they remain cost effective. Further, with the increasing concern of global warming, high demand for oil and geo-political issues, more efficient, clean power generation systems are desirable.
Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the fossil/nuclear fuel consumed per unit of freight for a surface transport vehicle. There is also a need to capture energy that is being lost from existing systems and/or the ability to transfer excess power between one or more surface transport vehicles and a power storage unit.
One such power generation system is to target a reduction in fuel and wasted energy lost in the stopping phase of a surface transport vehicle (i.e. the braking phrase) and to store/transmit excess energy at declines or descent and reuse this energy at inclines or when the surface transport vehicle is climbing up a hill or mountain.